REPORT DIGEST

ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT

(Including Appellate Court Districts 1-5 and the Illinois Courts Commission)

FINANCIAL AND COMPLIANCE AUDIT

For the Two Years Ended:
June 30, 1999

Summary of Findings:

Total this audit 1
Total last audit 4
Repeated from last audit 0

Release Date:
April 12, 2000

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State of Illinois
Office of the Auditor General

WILLIAM G. HOLLAND
AUDITOR GENERAL

To obtain a copy of the Report contact:
Office of the Auditor General
Attn: Records Manager
Iles Park Plaza
740 E. Ash Street
Springfield, IL 62703
(217) 782-6046 or TDD (217) 524-4646
This Report Digest is also available on
the worldwide web at
http://www.state.il.us/auditor

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

 
  • The Administrative Office of Illinois Courts payroll change/exception report did not have adequate information for management to perform efficient monitoring controls over the payroll process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{Expenditures and Activity Measures are summarized on the reverse page.}

 

SUPREME COURT
FINANCIAL AND COMPLIANCE AUDIT

For The Two Years Ended June 30, 1999

EXPENDITURE STATISTICS

FY 1999

FY 1998

FY 1997

Total Expenditures (All Funds)
Expenditures:

Appropriated Funds
Non-appropriated Funds

$242,364,576


$241,973,576
$391,000

$221,905,063


$221,790,063
$115,000

$212,673,787


$212,553,302
$120,485

OPERATIONS TOTAL

% of Total Expenditures

$188,331,784

77.71%

$176,232,982

79.42%

$169,361,388

79.63%

Personal Services

% of Operations Expenditures
Average No. of Employees

$157,280,705


83.51%
2,147

$148,635,062


84.34%
2,131

$143,494,721


84.72%
2,149

Other Payroll Costs (FICA, Retirement)

% of Operations Expenditures

$11,639,809



6.18%

$9,681,059



5.49%

$8,669,840



5.12%

Contractual Services

% of Operations Expenditures

$3,591,544


1.91%

$3,422,983


1.94%

$3,212,875


1.90%

Mandatory Arbitration Total

% of Operations Expenditures

$5,966,794


3.17%

$5,469,019


3.11%

$4,994,249


2.95%

All Other Operations Items

% of Operations Expenditures

$9,852,932


5.23%

$9,024,859


5.12%

$8,989,703


5.31%

GRANTS TOTAL

% of Total Expenditures

$54,032,792

22.29%

$45,672,081

20.58%

$43,312,399

20.37%

Cost of Property and Equipment

$23,757,852

$22,675,367

$21,654,436

SERVICE EFFORTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

1998

1997

Supreme Court of Illinois:
Cases Filed
Cases Disposed
Appellate Court of Illinois:
Cases Filed
Cases Disposed
Circuit Courts of Illinois:
Cases Filed
Cases Disposed


3,568
3,427

9,317
9,022

4,455,668
4,106,522


3,591
3,557

9,307
9,578

4,328,170
3,983,546

DIRECTOR OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF ILLINOIS COURTS
During Audit Period: Joseph Schillaci
Currently: Joseph Schillaci
 

 

 

 

 

Payroll reports need improvement

FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

PAYROLL REPORTS DID NOT PROVIDE FOR EFFICIENT MONITORING

The Administrative Office of the Illinois Court's (AOIC's) payroll change/exception report did not have adequate information for management to perform efficient monitoring controls over the payroll process.

We identified two issues concerning the content of this report:
  • It was difficult and time-consuming to identify only the changes for an employee for the relevant pay period because a given employee may have more than one pay code attached to his or her name and the report showed cumulative information beginning when the employee, started working at the Supreme Court.
  • The report retained information for all employees, including employees who had left and were no longer on the payroll. (Finding 1, pages 10-11)

We recommended the AOIC examine the possibility of implementing a program that would produce reports that indicate only changes for the relevant pay period.

The AOIC officials agreed that the payroll exception reports could be lengthy and cause the process of reviewing exception reports to be less efficient. To improve efficiency, the AOIC has revised the payroll exception reports.

The response to the recommendation was provided by the Court’s Chief Internal Auditor, Ms. Rusti Cummings.

AUDITORS’ OPINION

The auditors stated the financial statements of the Mandatory Arbitration Fund are fairly presented as of and for the years ended June 30, 1999 and 1998.

 

 

____________________________________

WILLIAM G. HOLLAND, Auditor General

WGH:GSS:pp

SPECIAL ASSISTANT AUDITORS

Our special assistant auditors for this audit were Arthur Andersen, LLP.